Saving Languages

Many Native American languages in North America are extinct or have no known speakers. These seven Native American languages, however, are among those that have retained a significant number of speakers.

» Read More of North America’s Top Native American Languages

Many Cambodian minority languages are facing extinction, and the efforts to save them are facing difficult challenges: many minority language speakers are more interested in learning Cambodia’s dominant Khmer language than traditional native languages.

» Read More of Should Cambodian Languages Be Saved?

The Babylonian language is being revitalized, thanks to the creation of audio recordings that reveal what this long-dead language (probably) sounded like. Oddly enough, it resembles a mix of Arabic and Italian!

» Read More of How the Babylonian Language Came Back from the Dead

Language death and language extinction are two related – but different! – events that can occur when a language’s speakers dwindle. Find out the difference between dead languages and extinct ones, and whether anything can be done to reverse the processes.

» Read More of Language Death & Extinction: Nails in the Linguistic Coffin

Questioning the lost purity of Australian English due to American influence raises the issue of whether language corruption should be a real worry. Is Australian English truly under siege by Americanisms, or is it simply natural linguistic evolution?

» Read More of Debunking the Myth of Language Corruption

Efforts to preserve the Plains Indian Sign Language system of “hand talk” reveal that it’s not only spoken native languages that are in danger. What was once used as a lingua franca among Plains Indian tribes is now used less than ever.

» Read More of Lending a Hand to Plains Indian Sign Language

The endangered Shoshone language has only around 3,000 speakers in the world. To change this, the language is benefiting from a University of Utah project to revitalize American Indian languages in hopes of saving them from extinction.

» Read More of New Program Gives Shoshone Language a Lift

The number of Cayuga language speakers in Canada is dwindling. In response, the Canadian government has announced a series of new projects, one of which is aimed at preserving not only the Cayuga language, but also Cayuga culture.

» Read More of Canadian Government Acts to Save Cayuga Language

The Native American Potawatomi language is in serious jeopardy. But by creating dictionaries, storybooks, and audio guides, one woman – the last known fluent Potawatomi speaker – is making an effort to ensure it isn’t lost to future generations.

» Read More of Single-Handedly Saving the Potawatomi Language

New research suggests that dated statistics regarding language extinction are seriously flawed due to the lack of consideration for bilingual speakers. With this in mind, the world’s languages may not be in as much danger as some thought.

» Read More of Is Bilingualism a Language Lifesaver?